Koa

The ship drifted silently down the narrow river, its lanterns cutting thin circles of light through the heavy darkness. The forest loomed on either side, vast and untamed a place no man willingly entered. Koa stood at the bow, his gaze fixed on the shifting treeline. The forest had always been a forbidden land, home to wild beasts and things darker still, creatures that had never bent to human rule.

It was then a messenger hurried across the deck, bowing low before him. “Sarki,” the guard said, his voice edged with disbelief, “the Oracle has spoken.”

Koa stiffened. The words were almost unthinkable. The Oracle had not seen a vision in more than a decade not since Koa’s ascension, not since the bond to his mate remained undiscovered. Many had begun to whisper that the gods had turned their faces away.

“What did she see?” Koa demanded.

The guard swallowed. “A lost soul. She said it lies within this forest. That we must find it.

Koa’s hand tightened on the railing. A vision after ten silent years. A lost soul waiting in the most dangerous place known to man. The timing was too sharp, too cruel. He did not have time for this, he had travelled far and wide in search of his mate but had no luck. He had wasted too much time. The darkness would consume his kingdom if he did not get a secondary mate to marry before the new day.

He gave the order, and the ship slowed to a halt against the muddy bank. Torches were lit, weapons drawn, and the guards moved with deliberate care into the undergrowth. The air grew heavier the deeper they pressed into the woods, and the night seemed to hold its breath. Every sound was sharper here the crack of branches, the low growl of distant beasts, the rustle of unseen predators watching from the dark.

The men moved in formation, blades unsheathed, shields ready. It was not only animals they feared; the forest was said to devour men whole, to swallow their souls and return nothing but silence.

Koa advanced with them, his senses sharp, his body tense as if expecting the shadows to lunge. If the Oracle had seen something after all these years, he could not dismiss it. Still, unease knotted in his chest. This was not a place where human lives belonged.

The forest seemed endless, a place where even the air felt watchful. Every sound, the snap of twigs, the cry of distant beasts pressed against Koa’s men like a warning. No human had set foot here in years; only those desperate or cursed wandered into the depths. And yet, the Oracle’s words had brought them here.

Koa’s breath caught as his gaze fell upon the figure slumped against the roots of the tree. At first glance, she looked like a corpse abandoned to the mercy of the forest skin ashen, streaked with blood and grime, mud caked across her face until her features were almost unrecognizable. Her dress hung in tatters, clinging to a frame so thin it spoke of suffering far beyond this night. He strained, sharpening the gift of his hearing, and even then the sound that reached him was hardly more than a ghost of a breath so faint he wondered if he imagined it. Everything about her bore the mark of someone who had endured torment and been discarded, as though the world itself had tried to erase her.

“Bring her aboard,” Koa ordered, his voice low but sharp with urgency. The guards hesitated only a breath before moving carefully to lift the fragile body from the ground, as though she might shatter at their touch. Koa’s eyes never left her, every instinct in him taut with unease. “Send for the healer,” he added, turning to his captain. “Tell him to prepare at once. She doesn’t have long.” The weight of command pressed heavy on his tone.

As the guards carried her limp form toward the ship, Koa’s thoughts churned with the weight of the prophecy. This was not how he had envisioned his marriage rushed, forced, to a woman who hovered between life and death. Yet the gods had sent them here, and the oracle had not spoken in over a decade until this night. Was this frail, battered soul their answer? The kingdom teetered on the edge of ruin, and time was a blade pressed against his throat. Far from any village, with no other choice in sight, it was as if the gods had dropped her into his path. He clenched his jaw, tasting the bitterness of fate. This was no union born of desire, but of duty.

He had known for twenty years since the night his parents died and the burden of the kingdom passed to him.

The prophecy was clear: Only the bond with your mate can sustain the kingdom’s protection.

But Koa had searched the world for his destined mate for a decade, and found nothing.

The law, however, offered a desperate loophole: marry a secondary mate to delay the effects of the darkness. It would not be as strong, nor would it last forever. But it would give him time. Time his people desperately needed.

His fighters exchanged uncertain glances, the weight of his silence heavy among them. He could read the disappointment in their eyes, though none dared voice it. They all knew he had been given ample time to choose a “secondary mate” from one of the royal families back home, yet he had waited until the very last moment. Still, though they disapproved, not a man among them questioned him aloud. They trusted him with their lives. He had always been a strong, capable ruler. And beyond trust, there was fear. No man or beast struck fear like Koa. They had seen firsthand the fate of those who opposed him, especially his enemies.

To his kingdom, to his soldiers, it might seem that his search for a mate was nothing more than duty, a burden he carried as their Sarki. But the truth was far deeper, far more personal. He had longed for her since he was a boy. As a child, he would lie awake imagining what she might look like, how her voice might sound. By the time he reached his teenage years, he began to feel the void the aching loneliness that gnawed at him. His father once told him that this emptiness was his soul yearning for its other half. And as the years passed, that longing only grew stronger.

Eventually, he had learned how to bury it, to rule without showing weakness. But it had never left him. It pulsed within him, silent but constant, a hollow echo that nothing else could fill.

“Call the Oracle,” Koa commanded, rising to his full height. “This might be a sign that the gods want to save us. I will wed this lost soul.” His voice was calm. Steady.

Zane’s gaze flickered to the motionless girl. “Sarki”

“I’ve made my decision.”

---

Moments later, the Oracle was escorted to Koa’s side. Bent with age, her skin stretched thin like parchment, she moved slowly, her glowing white hair shimmering beneath the light glow of the ship. At nearly five hundred years old, she was the only living Oracle capable of officiating the marriage of a Sarki.

She leaned heavily on a soldier as she approached. “What do you need of me, Sarki?”

“I will marry her,” Koa said.

The Oracle’s clouded eyes settled on the girl’s body, still lying lifeless on the ground. “Time is short,” she rasped, her voice thin but certain. “But a marriage cannot happen without consent.”

“She’s unconscious,” Zane interjected, his frown deepening.

The healer, still clutching his pale orb, stepped forward hesitantly. “I can speed her healing. Enough to wake her. But I will be drained.”

“Then do it,” Koa ordered without hesitation.

The healer dropped to his knees beside the girl. His orb, once dull, began to glow with a green light as he channeled his energy into her frail body. Sweat beaded his brow, then poured down his face as he fought to keep the spell alive. The glow intensified until suddenly, Rosa gasped. Her body jolted, her chest rising sharply as if pulled back from the edge of death itself. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused but alive.

The healer collapsed beside her, unconscious. Soldiers rushed to carry him back to the ship.

Koa crouched at Rosa’s side, his sharp gaze fixed on her. He wasted no time, his voice direct, controlled.

“Can you hear me?”

Her lips trembled, but she managed the faintest nod.

Koa paused. His eyes were steady, unflinching.

“If you agree, I will make sure you are safe. You’ll live comfortably. I’ll find whoever did this to you and destroy their bloodline. I cannot offer you love. But you will never be harmed again. Not as long as I breathe. This is your decision. Say yes or no.”

Rosa stared at him, her face unreadable beneath the mud. Tears slipped down the sides of her face, soaking into the earth. Her lips trembled before she whispered, so faintly that only Koa and the Oracle could hear:

“…you promise? As long as you keep your promise.”

The Oracle stepped forward. With surprising steadiness for her frail form, she knelt between them, wrapping a thin, ancient white cloth around their joined hands. From her satchel, she withdrew a shimmering glass orb that pulsed faintly in the light of the three moons.

Her voice carried with an echo of ancient power. “Do you, Sarki of the Kairos Kingdom, accept this woman as your bonded partner?”

“I do,” Koa said without hesitation.

“And do you, nameless daughter of the forest, accept this bond under protection of the moons?”

“Yes,” Rosa whispered, her voice breaking but sure.

The cloth grew hot, the warmth intensifying until it nearly burned. The orb flared with blinding light, so bright the soldiers turned their heads. For a fleeting moment, Koa caught something in the Oracle’s expression a flicker of fear before it vanished behind her usual calm mask.

When the light finally dimmed, the Oracle released their hands and straightened, her voice heavy with finality. “It is done.”

Koa rose, already feeling the shift in the air. The barriers were stabilizing. Not whole, not at their full strength but enough. Enough to hold back the darkness. For now.

“Take her to a room to rest. Get her cleaned and treated. If she dies, everything we’ve done is wasted.”

He turned to leave, but the Oracle’s voice stopped him. “Leave her with me. I will care for her on the journey.”

Koa froze, then turned slowly. “You’ve never offered to take in anyone.”

“She needs a woman near her,” the Oracle replied, her ancient eyes steady. “And besides… she is our queen now, even if she is only a secondary mate.”

Koa studied her for a long moment before giving a single nod. “Zane. Take her to the Oracle’s room.”

“As you command, Sarki,” Zane said, bowing slightly before signaling the soldiers.

Koa turned toward his chambers as the ship drifted forward, the weight of the night pressing heavy on his shoulders. For now, the threat to his kingdom was stalled, but unease lingered like a shadow at the back of his mind. He could not take a stranger into Kairos without knowing who she truly was. The moment she woke, he would demand answers her name, how she had come to be in that cursed forest, and how she had survived when any other soul would have perished. She looked as though she had been there for days, yet something about her survival gnawed at him. Whatever the truth was, one thing was certain. Something was off about her… deeply off.